Friday, July 26, 2013

REVIEW | Osteria Dei Ganzi - hot new East-End venue featuring a kickass patio & a unique 'Italian Experience'

After hearing about how awesome the new Italian restaurant with a killer patio was, I had to try it out for myself.  Osteria Dei Ganzi, better known as Ganzi Toronto is right on Jarvis St. and Wellesley.  It's about a 5-10 minute walk from Wellesley Station.  We went at an awkward time of 2:30pm for a late lunch, so there weren't too many people as the kitchen closes at 3pm.  I actually liked that it wasn't busy and we were able to enjoy ourselves freely.


We ordered a few plates to share.  Above is the Misto Woodboard - an assorted selection of Italian cold cuts and imported cheeses, served with arancini.  Loved the variety and the freshness of the cheeses & meats.  Recommended if you're there for a few drinks and need some grub or if you're sharing a few plates with your friends like I did.



Dining Alfresco (dining outdoors such as a patio) during summertime is not complete without some Sangria!  Ganzi's mixologist, Joao made us a GIANT & beautiful bowl of white sangria with oranges, fig, peaches... can't remember what else.  It was refreshing, delicious and cooling.  It was hard to scoop up the sangria into our wine glasses however because the scoop was too big.



We also ordered the Eggs Benedettina - poached eggs on toasted garlic rosemary focaccia, served with ham-cheese & mortadella roulade, topped with creamy parmiggiano sauce.  This is from the Brunch menu and all dishes with eggs came with home fries, fried banana peppers and lentil ragout.


Another from the Brunch menu was the Steak Tagliata & Eggs.  Of course we couldn't resist a steak dish.  This came with 3 scrambled eggs and AAA black angus steak served with spicy dandelion and piadine.  The steak was cooked perfectly (medium rare) and we enjoyed this the most from the Brunch menu.  Highly recommended!  If it's too much for you, you can always ask for less than 3 eggs.


It's not a true 'Italian Experience' without pizza, is it?  The Piccante Pizza is made with tomato, calabria sausage or chicken (we got chicken), portobello mushroom, fresh sliced diavolini (chili) peppers, provolone and buffalo mozzarella cheese.  This is very tasty as it has a lot of flavours and the right acidity in ingredients.  Be careful if you can't take spicy food, because the diavolini chili peppers gave us a nice kick!


The Meat Cannelloni was an example of simple things that are done just right.  Made with tomato, thyme, and parmiggiano cheese, even when there's not a slew of ingredients, it was seasoned perfectly and the Cannelloni was cooked well too.

Now for the dessert to finish off.  We got to meat the Pastry Chef who told us what she prepared for us.  Even though we were super full at this point, you know we all have another stomach for dessert!


Tried a Frittelle Italiane for the first time!  Italian donuts with apricot & mango filling.  If you don't like things that are too sweet, this has just enough sweetness from the filling and the donut itself it soft and chewy - a perfect combination.


This last dessert really ended out meal with a bang.  I usually don't like Tiramisu, but this converted me to a Tiramisu-lover.  It's a delicious as it looks in the picture.  It doesn't overwhelm with coffee as there's just the right amount.  I will go back just for this!

I had a great dining experience here with great food, drinks and attentive staff.  This is definitely a place to visit at least once if you live in Toronto, especially in the summertime for the patio.

Tip: leave room for that Tiramisu Dessert!




Osteria dei Ganzi on Urbanspoon
Osteria Dei Ganzi on Foodio54

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